A World Of Art

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A CONTEMPORARY MEDIUM

Oil pastels are a reasonably new art medium. In the mid 1920′s, the primary soft pastel was developed. Called Cray-pas, this soft pastel was considered an upgrade from crayons. It wasn’t until 1947, upon the request of the artists Pablo Picasso and Henri Goetz, the materials manufacturer Sennelier set with regards to to manufacture a soft, artists’ quality pastel.

Picasso wanted a pastel stick that could be employed on a potpourri of surfaces, like wood, clay or canvas. Goetz want a pastel which could be used with directness and immediacy, and would concede him to work directly on a surface, without brushes, palette knives or any other kind of tool.

Sennelier came out with a soft oil pastel in 1949. It had a desirable soft consistency, was available in a wide range of brilliant colors and the pigments were of a professional permanent and acid-free quality. Sennelier’s oil pastels were the seminal oil pastel sticks from which all other brands have originated. More recently, a larger oil pastel stick was devised which enables artists to fabricate large, colorful works, without the accoutrement of oil painting: turpentine, linseed oil, rags, brushes, palettes, and palette knives. The calibers of immediacy and directness have made big oil stick ordinary amidst a heap of contemporary artists.

The pigments in hard pastels, oil pastels and oil sticks are the same as those employed in oil paints. The necessary divergence among oil paints, hard and soft pastels and oil sticks is the binder ingredient employed to hold the pigments together. Oil paints are basically pigments in a base of linseed oil and drying agents, liquid sufficient to be extruded from a tube. Hard pastels have less oil and wax binder than oil pastels. Oil pastels, having more oil and wax content, are softer in consistency and body. To date, oil pastels are available in two qualities: student and professional.

HARD AND SOFT – THE DIFFERENCE

Chalk or hard pastels have been around longer since the Renaissance. (Leonardo DaVinci wrote with regards to pastels and a good deal of of his drawings were done in red chalk.) Hard pastels may be blended with the finger or with a little blending stick to manufacture subtle shadings of subtle and delicate shading and spotlight effects. Because of their hard, arid consistency, they are powdery, semi-transparent and magnificent for creating smooth, “seamless” transitions of color.

Because oil pastels are softer, they are semi-opaque in nature. One color may be layered over another color and with great success cover it. Many overlapping layers may be created. integrating two colors with oil pastels may be done with networks of little lines or strokes. Because oil pastels have outstanding covering ability, they may replicate the procedure of painting with oil paints or acrylics.

Oil pastels, because of their wax and oil content, never exclusively dry. For the finished artwork, an application of acrylic varnish will protect the oil pastel surface. An oil pastel art is best protected by a mat, glass and a frame. Thinned, an oil pastel’s consistency is much like water color, and may employed in washes and transparent overlays of colors. Oil pastels may be diluted with turpentine or solid homogeneous inorgani substance spirits. Oil pastels may be applied on any porous surface. The best help for durability and permanence is an archival, acid-free, heavy weight paper, board or primed canvas.

CREATING A SUNSET – VIBRANT COLOR TRANSITIONS

In depicting a sunset, for example, where colors may consist of a potpourri of shades oranges, reds, purples and blues, integrating each color area may be done by blending one color into another by layering with little line networks. Laying down an area of light orange, then going over it with little strokes of dark orange will start out the gradation. Light orange may be brought back in over the dark orange to introduce the necessary light/dark gradations. Then the darker orange may be brought in to make the gradation more explicit. By using small, networks of lines, each color may be worked into by other colors until the desired effect is achieved. By blending colors in this way, transitions from one color to another are smooth, but the vibrant quality of intermingling line networks of colors is retained.

CREATING A SELF PORTRAIT – SUBTLE COLOR TRANSITIONS

Another example of integrating colors with oil pastels may be demonstrated in self portrait. Upon close observation, one may see that skin has a great deal of subtle flesh colors. One area in the cheeks, for example, may be redder. Color areas around the chin may have a yellow hue. Color areas around the eyes may have blue or browns. Let’s take the cheek area, for example. A basic flesh tone has been put down in that area. A redder blush of skin tone may be developed by introducing a network of little lines of a light pink color over this. Now, the flesh tone color may be layered with little lines over the light pink. The interplay amid these two color areas will develop the blush in the cheek area. Working with exchanges of these two colors, a third or even fourth color, for example, light blue or light green, may be subtly interlaced with the flesh tone and pink networks to create subtle color passages which replicate even further the a great deal of colors exhibited in flesh.

PORTABILITY – PICASSO’S LEGACY

If you choose to go out to the woods, the sea shore, or your backyard to create a colorful, painterly artwork, there is a definitive vantage to using oil pastels. Just pack up your box of oil pastels, tablet of paper and head on out! In your hand, oil pastels will act speedily to catch a sure slant of sunlight. a shoreline quickly altering from green to blue because of clouds coming up from the horizon, or shadows moving all over a forest landscape.

Indeed, you may see how oil pastels were the product of Picasso’s need to work quickly, with expression and using a wide range of wondrous colors. And you may use your oil pastel drawings and sketches as references for oil paintings because the colors of oil pastels translate well to the painting medium. Immediacy and directness are calibers in oil pastels that make them veritably a contemporary medium.

STUDENT OR PROFESSIONAL QUALITY?

If you are giving careful consideration to working with oil pastels, buy good quality (professional) pastels. They will have a dense body of pigment and more inviolable layering qualities. Professional quality pastels will most accurately duplicate the small-line networking color integration technique described in this article.

Cheaper student grade oil pastels have a higher wax content and because the pigment body is less dense, they are often more like crayons and will not layer or cover well. In for less oil pastels, often times the more pricey pigments have more wax and oil binders. This keeps the price low, but likewise the quality. For the most part, student quality oil pastels are much more transparent and colors, even upon heavy application, will appear washed-out and faded.

ENJOY!

The splendor of colors, ease of use and portability of oil pastels makes this art medium a terrifi tool to try, whether you are just discovering your originative self or want to experiment with a new medium. Discover oil pastels for yourself and take delight in creating beautiful, colorful artwork!

Why A World of Art? Henry Sayre wrote the introductory edition of World of Art because he wanted to use a text in his own art appreciation course that genuinely represented all artists, not just the Western canon found at that time in the other texts. He also wanted a text that fostered critical thinking through looking at, talking about, and questioning works of art for his students. We are proud to present the new sixth edition of World of Art, which further strengthens these two key distinct elements of the text while presenting hot topics like video and time-based media.

Review
Student Feedback on the new 6th edition of A World of Art:

Hi Mr. Sayre,

I’ve just finished a class through Indiana University and wanted to take a moment to write you.

The text book for this class was your “A World of Art” and I want you to know how much I enjoyed your book. I’m sure you don’t get a lot of emails thanking you for your textbook, but I find myself compelled to write.

Throughout the class I was struck by how easy you made art to understand. I found each chapter closely like having a speech with a professor and thought you might like to listen that one student out there very much cherished the way you neared your writing.

Oddly, I am in the first place from Oregon, living in Philadelphia, and taking an Art course at Indiana University…what a little world we all live in!

Sending my best and wanting you to know that your textbook is one that, rather than return for half credit, I’ll happily keep on my bookshelf.

Best regards,

Siobhan Hanna

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